Tories to consider arming Arctic-bound coast guard ships

[Newsjock]

Source: Nunatsiaq News

The Conservative government has revealed that it will consider arming the Canadian Coast Guard’s icebreakers as a way to bolster Arctic sovereignty.

The commitment to study the option of placing guns on coast guard ships was the highlight of the government’s tabled response this week to recommendations in a report from the Senate fisheries committee about strengthening Canada’s presence in the North.

... And Michael Byers, a University of British Columbia expert on international law, said the “quiet authority of a deck-mounted gun” is a reasonable show of force in the Arctic, and does not constitute a provocation to foreign countries or “preparing for war with the Russians.”

All coast guard icebreakers, he said, should be “multi-purpose vessels” that not only perform navigational assistance, conduct scientific research and provide search-and-rescue services, but also bring both the symbolic and practical might of a “light machine gun” to the job of enforcing Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic.

Read more: http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/22333_tories_to_consider_arming_arctic-bound_coast_guard_ships/

[applegrove]

1. You know they could give money to the CBC News and Canadians would see that

as a way of defending the nation. But no, they insist on arctic this and arctic that. I hate to think what will happen to the CBC if the Tories ever get a majority.